Many fields and industries require the capture, storage, and analysis of various samples. For example, life sciences and related diagnostic and laboratory testing fields capture, store, and analyze various fluids, such as blood. The environment in which the samples are collected and analyzed is carefully controlled to avoid contamination of the sample, and the volume of the sample required to carry out the desired analysis is generally low. As such, open ended, low volume sample vessels, such as test tubes, have long been used to capture, store, and analyze samples of this type.
Other industries, such as the petrochemical industry, also require the capture, storage, and analysis of various samples. For example, during the process of drilling oil and gas wells, it is desirable to collect and analyze drilling fluids and drill cuttings. Unlike a laboratory setting, the environment at a well site, where drilling fluid and drill cutting samples must be collected, is harsh. Furthermore, the volume of the samples required to carry out the desired analysis can be relatively large.
Some existing sampling and analytical technology allows for using automation and increasing throughput of low volume samples. In some cases, where relatively larger volume samples are used, well plates and test tubes have been implemented to collect and/or analyze such large-volume samples. However, test tubes, well plates, or cuvettes are generally fragile, have a single access point usually through the top, and are not easy to transport, process, and store in non-delicate sampling environments. Further, existing test tubes allow limited sample size and are sub-optimal for mixed-phase samples such as soil, silt, mud, drilling fluids, or other mixed-phase samples. Finally, while existing test tubes or plates allow for simple testing of samples, it can be difficult to reliably and consistently image samples positioned inside existing test tubes or plates.
Accordingly, a need exists for a sample vessel assembly which has a relatively large volume and which is configured to be used with mixed-phase samples. It is to such a sample vessel assembly and to methods of using same in automated analysis systems that the inventive concepts disclosed herein are directed.